Gioia and Kendall

Money

I believe that Gioia in his poem "Money" is trying to show the emphasis we put on money. He has taken many of the slang words we have come up with throughout our history and put them all in together. Throughout the rest of the poem Gioia talks of spending money, what it makes us (rich or poor), money money money. Its always needed and it will never go away.

Framing Class, Vicarious Living, and Conspicuous Consumption

According to Diana Kendall in her story "Framing Class, Vicarious Living, and Conspicuous Consumption" the media has shaped and divided us into an upper class, poor and homeless, working class and the middle class.
The portraits painted from the media of the poor and homeless makes the public weary of them. As Kendall said they try to paint them as the "Others" or "outcasts" of our society. She mentioned that they were also viewed as being harmful to themselves.
The working class was portrayed as the laborers of our society. Media doesn't see them as something worthy of putting on television.
The media then looked at the middle class values and suggests that they hold the nation together. A few shows are played on television showing the dysfunctions of the middle class families. These families are usually quite worried about their clothing and what they have. Kendall stated in the last paragraph of the middle class families "We pledge allegiance to the mall".
Now about the rich people... of course media has all kinds of things about them all over tv, the net, pretty much anywhere you look. Americans see that as the american dream. Everyone wants to be rich so why not make people think that is what you should be?
One thing I found interesting was when Kendall talked about how the issues being shown and talked about are becoming less and less complex. She said the reason they do that is because that is what the public wants. Real issues arent talked about because the public cant handle it. Thats pretty sad if that is truly how the media sees us.
I agree with her when she says we shouldn't let the media shape us. The media is pretty messed up.